FOOD IN TUSCANY
Tuscany’s wines and food have a natural affinity for each other that attests to a people’s historic love of the land and it’s homegrown products.
The heritage can be traced to the ancestral Etruscans, whose diet was strikingly similar to modern eating habits in the use of vegetables, fruit, olive oil, beef, poultry and game, pollenta from grains and, of course, wine.
The modern “cucina Toscana” covers a remarkable range of flavours, scents and textures, yet dishes are rarely conspicuously sharp or spicy, yet never bland.
The reason is that Tuscan food is intended to go with Tuscan wines and both have been cultivated over time, whether by design or intuition, to bring out the best in each other.
A recent survey showing the number of typical foods from the 20 regions in Italy, totalled just over 2,000; Tuscany had the largest single number of distinctive regional specialities with over 350, including olive oils, meat products, breads and pastas as well as vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, mushrooms and truffles, honey, herbs, spices, condiments and preserves, wine and fruit vinegars, pastries and sweets.
What continues to dignify the Tuscan table from the time of the Etruscans is it’s noble simplicity. If there’s a secret to the cooking it must lie in the Tuscan’s almost fanatical insistence on freshness. Most recipes rely on the inherent quality of seasonality. Most vegetables are eaten strictly in season, dressed with a little extra virgin oil. Salad greens are always available, whether cultivated or wild.
Tomatoes are eaten raw in season and even in the colder months the yellow and red/green variety are sliced into salads. There are a large number of Tuscan special breeds of tomatoes and many are used in sauces over the winter too.
Herbs are employed freely in Tuscan dishes; rosemary and sage above all, but also thyme, mint, bay, wild fennel seeds, pollen and oregano. Tarragon is known as dragoncello and is said to have been used originally around Siena before it became popular in France.
Garlic is used liberally and onions; yellow, white and purple are all popular as are leeks in season.
Tuscan dishes tend to be savoury and substantial, for example the legendary “bistecca alla fiorentina”; thick Florentine steak from native Chianina steers seared over red hot wood coals so that it’s charred on the surface and red and tender within. Another speciality of the San Gimignano area is the Wild Boar or “Chingale” ragout served simply and magnificently with pasta.
Some ingredients in the Tuscan diet are rare and expensive; for example; game, the plump boletus mushrooms called porcini and truffles; above all the perfumed tartufi bianchi; shaved in priceless flakes over pastas.
There is a Celebration or Festival to mark most of the major food and wine harvests in Tuscany and all are well supported by restaurants, locals and tourists alike with whole menus being designed for instance around truffles. In the Autumn there are not many areas in Tuscany where the air is not filled with the heady aroma of wine and truffles.
Contrastingly, many Tuscan recipes derive from a rustic country heritage that let nothing go to waste. Some of the tastiest Tuscan dishes are based on leftovers.
The pillar of the Tuscan diet is bread; by tradition giant loaves of unsalted pane toscano redolent of sourdough with a hint of smoke from wood-fired ovens. There is flatbread called schiacciata made with herbs and the sweetened variety made with fruit, spices and nuts.
Other regional breads that can often be bought from the local farmer’s markets are made with cheese in by “Mamma” and taste wonderful when fried in a little oil. Crostini with a variety of toppings are a popular antipasta dish in San Gimignano.
Panzanella is leftover bread softened in water, squeezed dry and crumbled into a mix with raw tomatoes, onions, basil and olive oil in a delectable salad.
In Tuscany, pasta had been historically upstaged by a variety of hearty soups, many thickened with bread. You can still enjoy many distinctive pasta dishes too from hand made pici to fresh ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach.
White beans (fagioli) are one of the most popular vegetable accompaniments to an entrée. They are usually stewed in terracotta pots and served lukewarm with a grinding of black pepper and plenty of extra virgin olive oil.
Meats are fundamental in the Tuscan diet from the salt cured salami laced with wild fennel to the savoury prosciutto seasoned in the mountain air. Lamb and kid are special in the Spring and free range poultry is delicious roasted, grilled or braised with herbs and Vin Santo.
Tuscans are avid hunters and small game birds are popular, but in San Gimignano, the Wild Boar rules and you can tell the delis from a distance with a couple of stuffed ones ready to greet you at the entrance !
San Gimignano and Volterra are not far from the coast so there is always a good selection of fresh fish to choose from; again, simple is best.
Tuscany’s regional cheese par excellence is pecorino made from Sheep’s milk. Soft and mild when young, it can also come served from small drums coated with ash, olive oil or tomato paste which give a uniquely tangy flavour as it ages. The ricotta by-product from the whey is divine and is best bought fresh from “Mamma’s” stall in the local farmer’s market straight from a tray of olive oil and herbs.
Those with a sweet tooth will not be disappointed with a visit to San Gimignano, which after all, boasts the best ice-cream parlour in Italy. Many of Tuscany’s desserts have been designed to complement a glass of Vin Santo like fruit tarts, roasted chestnuts of the flat cake made from chestnut flour and pine nuts.
As the mist rises and the bells toll in the early morning, outside the various gates to San Gimignano you will find clusters of people waiting for transport up into the surrounding woods and hills; the women complete with chestnut picking baskets and the men with the camouflage jackets, dogs and guns ready to take on the Wild Boar.
This review of Tuscan food is by no means complete and is intended to leave you plenty to discover for yourself when you come to spend a while with us at Villa Pallero.
Salute